Process for the treatment of ores.



J. IRVING. PROCESS FOR THE TREATMENT OF ORES.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 20, 1911.

1,048,541; Patented Dec.31, 1912.

W! T/VESSES LVZENTUA JOSEPH IRVING, OF SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH.

PROCESS FOR THE TREATMENT OF ORES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed July 20, 1911. Serial No. 639,660.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JOSEPH IRVING, a subjectof Great Britain, residing at Salt Lake City, in the county of SaltLake, State of Utah, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin Processes for the Treatment of Ores, of which the following is adescription, reference being bad to the accompanying drawings, forming apart hereof.

. My invention relates to processes for the treatment of ores,particularly ores carry ing precious metals with copper.

My invention has for its object to-provide a process of treatment ofsuch ores in the raw state, that is, without preliminary roasting orother treatment other than being -pulverized, which shall be effectiveand at the same time be inexpensive, a particular feature of theinvention being the utilization for this treatment of such ores of thetailing or end liquors containing ferrous sulfate, which wouldordinarily be thrown away.

lVith these objects in view, my invention consists in the processhereinafter described and particularly pointed out in the claims.

The drawing accompanying this specification illustrates diagrammaticallyan ar rangement of apparatus for carrying out the process.

In applying my process to the recovery of gold, silver and copper fromores, I first take say five tons of a. two per cent. copper carbonateore ground to a sixteen mesh and place it in leaching tank 1, which isprovided with a stirrer 2 and perforated steam pipes 3, andintroducefifteen hundred gallons of water mixed with fifteen gallons ofsulfuric acid (sp. gr. 1.84). This solution should be added slowly tothe mass of pulverized ore, preferably by spraying it well over thesurface of the ore in the tank by means of small launders or otherwise.Steam is then forced into the tank through the steam pipe 3.and thestirrer Q is set in operation. This is kept up for say two hours, theore in the tank being kept hot and in constant agitation so as to bringthe sulfuric acid solution into contact with every particle of the ore.jected to heat and agitation for the period mentioned, the contents ofthe tank are allowed to settle, and the liquor now contain- After beingthus subing the copper in solution is drained off through outletfl intoa filter tank 5 containing some sand and fine iron pyrites, fromstrength and in substantially the same quantity as before, and issubjected to heat and Patented Dec. 31,1912.

agitation as before, and the resulting liquor is drained off aftersettling, filtered and run into the settling tank 6. These twotreatments of the ore will extract. most of the copper from the ore, butin order to extract all the copper possible, I subject the ore in thetank to two washings of plain water with heat and agitation as before,running the liquor from these washings, as before, through the filtertank 5 into settling tank 6. The liquor in the settling tank carryingthe copper in solution is then, while still warm, run through tanks orcanals 7, which are loaded with metals-more electro-positive than thecopper, gold and silver such as metallic iron and zinc in the form ofsheets, strips, turnings or other scrap, upon which the copper will bequickly deposited, the iron displacing the copper from the solution, sothat the liquor becomes a ferrous sulfate solution.

From the tanks or canals 7 the liquor runs to a convenient settlingtankor sump 8, as tailing or end liquor. I then take say five tons of atwo per cent. copper ore, such as carbonate and chalcocite'containing anappreciable amount of gold and silver, ,place it in a leaching tank 9,here shown as a separate tank, though tank 1 may be used if desired, andspray over it, say seven.

hundred gallons of the tailing or end liquor from the sump, which has inthe meantime been well agitated to cause the ferrous sulfate containedin it to change to ferric sulfate. This change is made complete by usinga steam injector to raise the liquid from the sump to the leaching tank.After this liquor has soaked into the ore in the tank, I spread aboutfive hundred pounds of common salt (NaCl) over the surface of the ore inthe tank, and then spray over the salt another seven hundred gallons ofthe tailing or end liquor from the sump. The ferric sulfate in solutionin the liquor from the sump reacts to a greater or less extent with thesalt to form ferric chlorid tank 6, tank and canals 7 into the sump 8,

.per, gold and silver in solution as sulfate fully maintain the strengthof the liquor, to

I sumption of metallic iron in the precipitate pressed in the equation'v Fe, (S0,) ,+cNao1=re,o1,+sN ,so,.

A port-ion of the ferric sulfate remains as such in the solution and theferric .sulfate and ferric chlorid act upon the ore to not only dissolveout the copper, but to also at the same time dissolve out the gold andsilver present.

After the second quantity of tailing or end liquor has been added to theore 'in tank 9, the contents of the tank are heated and agitated as inthe first part of the process, for about two hours, then allowed tosettle. The liquor nowcarrying copand sodium sulfate, the reaction beingexand chlorid of copper and chlorid of gold,- and chlorid of silver isrpn oil through the filter tank 5 to settling tank 6, and from settlingtank 6 through the taiiks and canals 7 containing metallic iron, andzincwhere the copper, gold and silver are displaced by the iron, andzinc and into the sump 8.

The ore in tank 9 is then treated with about fifteen hundred gallons ofwater containing fifteen gallons of sulfuric acid, and

of the metals. The liquor from the wash is run through thefilter tank 5,settling and serves not only to extract most of the metals remaining inthe ore after the treatment with the tailing or end liquor, but alsoserves to keep up the strength of the tailing or end liquor remaining inthe sump. In this manner the regeneration of the tailing or end liquormay go on indefinitely, though itmay be found necessary in order to addsulfuric acid directly to the liquor in the sump. After thus washingwith sulfuric acid solution, the ore in tank 9 is washed with water withheat and agitation, the wash water being lead as before through thefilter tank, the settling tank, the tank and canals containing iron andzinc, to the sump.

The end or tailing liquor regenerated by the addition of the sulfuricacid as just above referred to, aided by the action of the steaminjector,- is found"to have a very rapid solvent eifect on eithercarbonate or sulfid: ores in the raw state, extracting the gold andsilver, as well as the copper.

The gold and silver are recovered simultaneously with the copper, andare generally precipitated as soon as the liquor from the settling tankcomes in contact with the 1IOI1 and zmc scrap. By the use of pyrites inthe filter tank, any excess of ferric sulfate is reduced, thus savingunnecessary con- In the treatment of flue dust containing say three percent. 'copperfand some gold three percent. sulfuric acid and common saltin the proportionof six parts of salt to one part of acid. This solutionis added to the flue dpst in a tank and the mass heated and agitated.The resultant liquor is filtered through the sand and pyrites in thefilter tank, and the filtered liquor added and two with waterwillgenerally be suflicient,'the mass being constantly agitated andheated during the washing operation. From the settling tank the liquorfrom this li uors to the precipitating tanks and canals. hetaihngliquors from this treatment solution first. above described, theliquors ,from the treatment of the carbonate and chalcocite carryinggold and silver as above described, and the liquors from the treatmentof the flue dust as above described, may be led into separate sumps, andsuch of them, either separately or together as addition of sulfuric acidas may be found advisable, may be -used in the treatment of orescarrying co'pper,.gold and silver, .the important features of theprocess being the regeneration of the tailing or end liquors, by whichthe ferrous sulfate formed by the ,taln'ng up of iron from theprecipitating tanks and canals in place of the copper, gold and silverprecipitated, into ferric sulfate, which will in part react upon thesalt used to form ferric chlorid.

$113 will of course be understood that the drawings are illustrativemerely of apparatus which might be used in carrying out the process, andare not intended to in any way limit the invention, and it will befurther understood that the invention is not .intended to be restrictedto the proportions of the ingredients used in the several operationsabove described j a Having thus described my invention, what Iclaimis:I 1. A process for therecovery' of .values from *ores carrying preciousmetals, which consists in treating copper ores with sulfuric acid andwater, injecting steam, and mechanically agitating the mass, drawing oflthe solution and passing the same over precious metals to therebyprecipitate the copper; regenerating the end liquors, adding sodiumchlorid to a copper ore contain-. ing precious metals, subjectlng thesame to the regenerated end liquors, injecting steam and mechanicallyagitating the mass, drawing tank.

and silver, I prepare a solutionfcontaining.

to the liquor in the settling tank 6. Two washings of the flue dust withthis solution of the copper carbonate with sulfuric acid,

a metal electropositive to the copper anding ofi the resulting solutionand passing treatment of flue dust passes with the other may be desired,regenerated by agitation and the use of'the steam injector with such ithe same over a metal electro positive to the copper and precious metalsto thereb precipitate and recover the copper and precious metals.

2. A process for the recovery of values from ores carrying copper andprecious metals, which consists in treating a copper ore with sulfuricacid and Water, injecting steam and agitating the mass, drawing 011' theresulting solution and passing the same over a metal electro positive tothe copper and precious metals to thereby precipitate the copper;regenerating the end liquors by agitating and passing the same through asteam injector, adding sodium chlorid to a copper ore containingprecious metals, subjecting the same to the regenerated end liquors,injecting steam and mechanically agitating the mass, drawing off theresulting solution and passing the same over a metal electro-positive tothe copper and precious metals to thereby precipitate and recover thecopper and precious metals.

3. A process for the recovery of preciousmetals from ores, consisting intaking the end liquors resulting from the action of sulfuric acidsolution upon copper ore and the subsequent precipitation of the copperupon iron, said end liouors being com osed of ferrous sulfate, ferrouschlorid, sodium sulfate and water; regenerating the tailing or endliquor by agitating and passing the same througha steam injector,subjecting an ore containing precious metals to the action of theregenerated end liquors and sodium chlorid, passing the resultingsolution through filters of sand and iron pyrites and over a metalelectropositive to copper and the precious metals to thereby precipitateand recover copper and the precious metals.

4. A process for the recovery of precious metals from ores containingcopper, consisting in taking the end liquors resulting from the actionof sulfuric acid solution upon a copper ore and the subsequentprecipitation of the copper upon iron, said end liquors being composedof ferrous sulfate, ferrous chlorid, sodium sulfate and water;regenerating the tailing or end liquorby agitating and passing the samethrough a steam injector, subjecting said ore containing preclous metalsto the action of the regenerated end liquors and sodium chlorid, passingthe resulting solution through filters of sand and iron pyrites and overa metal electropositive to copper and the precious metals to therebyprecipitate and recover copper and the precious metals.

5. A process for the recovery of copper, gold and silver from their oresconsisting in treating an ore containing copper with sulfuric acid andwater, in ecting steam and mechanically agitating the mixture, drawingoff the resulting solution, passing the same through filters and sandand iron pyrites, and then over a metal electropositive to the copperand precious metals, thereby precipitating the copper, regenerating theend liquors by stirring and the action of steam, subjecting a copper orecontaining gold and silver to the action of the regenerated liquors,adding sodium chlorid to the copper ore containing gold and silver,subjecting the same to the action of the regenerated end liquors,injecting steam and mechanically agitating the mass, filtering theresulting solution and passing it over a metal electropositive to theprecious metals to thereby precipitate and recover the copper, gold andsilver, reoxidizin the so formed end liquors and adding sul uric acidthereto to maintain the acid strength of the end liquors, for thetreatment of other ores.

This specification signed and witnessed this sixteenth (16) day of JuneA. D. 1911.

JOSEPH IRVING.

In the presence of C. O. PARSONS, Jr.,

GEO. J CONBTANTINE.

